Against the Grain

By: Jack EncarnacaoJan 27, 2011

Roger Gracie (left) | Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

Gracie frankly breaks down his shortcomings. That is a bit against
the grain for a Gracie, who, as a tribe, are more known to spout a
funny quip or pearl of wisdom to deflect discussions of their
weaknesses. He’s far from there yet, but Roger believes that
someday he will be able to impose his will as well in the MMA cage
as he did on the jiu-jitsu mat.

In racking up a record number of jiu-jitsu titles, Gracie was
particularly brilliant in his mount attack, lining up what appeared
to be basic, fundamental chokes against top competition. Throughout
his training life, Gracie was a natural on top, a position he
noticed brilliant guard players had trouble defending. He worked
obsessively on getting to mount, one of the hardest positions to
achieve in sport jiu-jitsu. He finished his opponents in the 2007,
2008 and 2009 world finals with chokes from the mount.

“That, in my opinion, is what the fighters lacked,” he says of
mount defense. “There’s a huge imbalance there. You’d see great
jiu-jitsu fighters with great guards, very hard to sweep, but when
you put them in [a position] to defend the mount, they’re not as
strong. A lot of people you see, they get really good and suddenly
they stop, you don’t see them improving more. And that never
happened to me. I’ve never had to reach my peak.”

While a strong top game came naturally to Gracie, it was his
ability to read opponents and walk through an opening that put him
in a different category altogether. Gracie admits he finds it much
harder to finish from the mount in MMA, so he is shifting, trying
to find different patterns and consistent holes among MMA
fighters.

One of his earliest adjustments was the decision to compete
exclusively as a light heavyweight. Gracie’s first MMA fight,
against heavyweight Ron Waterman in
2006, drove this point home.

“When you fight a guy much stronger and heavier than you, you have
to play a defense game,” he says. “When I fought [Waterman], I
couldn’t impose an offensive game. I had to play defense, because
otherwise I would get tired too quickly. But fighting at light
heavyweight, [opponents are] not [going to] be much heavier than
me. I can attack a lot more. I can try to take them down.”

About four minutes into his MMA debut, Gracie secured an armbar
from the bottom and submitted Waterman, a UFC veteran in his 20th
professional fight. Gracie only fought one other MMA fight before
signing with Strikeforce last year, defeating Yuki Kondo in
Sengoku
Raiden Championship, a promotion to which he is no longer tied.
The Prangley fight will be the second bout on a three-fight
Strikeforce
contract for Gracie, who has the leeway in the deal that will allow
him to compete in the 2011 Mundials in June. He plans to avail
himself of the option.

“The same mind that I have fighting jiu-jitsu, I have fighting
MMA,” he says. “S--t happens in your life, but I’ll be the best
fighter I can. If I can’t be the champion, I’ll do something
else.”

“

In the end, it’s
just a last name.
It’s whatever you
do that makes the
difference.

”

-- Roger Gracie on his
surname

Gracie lives in London with his wife, whom he met
in the U.K., and their 18-month-old son, Tristan. His father, who
Gracie says lost interest in BJJ after his instructor’s 1982 death
in a hang-gliding accident, moved back to Rio de Janeiro to care
for a prematurely born son.

Gracie is mindful of this, but, due to his upbringing and career
track, he is not weighed down by it. At his academy in West London,
a world away from his noted brethren, Roger Gracie Gomes is focused
on making his own way in mixed martial arts.

“In the end, it’s just a last name,” he says. “It’s whatever you do
that makes the difference.”